This post is brought to you by Saturday, howling wind that woke me up at an insane hour, a working internet connection and Okkervil River. A friend had a spare ticket to their show at the Annandale (thanks B) and although I haven’t heard of them before thought they sound rather jolly from the bits of audio I managed to catch. It was an absolutely packed night, with the body heat generated by the excited crowd brought the heat up by a good ten degrees. Their folksy, foot tapping tunes kept the heated crowd happy and I walked away with Lost Coastlines in my head without knowing the name of the song at the time.

Oh some photos to prove I was there, but I was just too far to catch them properly. Would really be interested to see them at scala later on in the year (meaningful look at fanceyj). Knitting wise I am nearly done with the Ropes and Picot cardigan, at 3 weeks this ended up being a faster knit than I expected. It is a fairly easy pattern, but there is enough detail to make it interesting. If anything, I am loving the picot edging as it’s not something I have tried before.

The pattern itself was well written and I didn’t receive a horrible “oh my, that’s a surprise I could do without” moment with this one, which is rather rare. I didn’t expect to love the Jo Sharp Silkroad tweed this much, it is softer than it looks but is also hefty enough for the garment to keep its shape. Love the Rowan 4ply tweed, it still irritates me that aside from one other manufacturer no one else makes tweed in 4ply!

It’s amazing the number of people I ended up asking and rejecting the offer of a free ticket. I was honestly thankful R said she will happily join me to watch some random band in some random place, just because…

The ticket was a freebie courtesy of Time Out’s Mailing List. . I didn’t know what to expect other than a quick check from lastfm gave the impression of Bjork.

The headline for the evening was Polly Scattergood supported by the Sharks, a cool duo with a female drummer. Being my first gig in London, I didn’t know what to expect venue wise, but ended up liking the Bar Academy Islington. It reminded me of the Annandale, with less sticky floor. The set up is intimate with strobe light set up in front of the stage.

I only brought my 50mm, 1.4 lens as it’s the only lens that can fit comfortably in my handbag and it was probably the first time I have used it for a gig. It’s rather rare that I can get that close to the stage, but not having done it in a while made me feel a little self conscious. Now…trying to get through today.